Column: 'Overkill' in Indian artifact theft case
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Filed Under:
Opinion
"The masterminds that conceived last week's massive raid on people suspected of illegally dealing Native American artifacts called their operation "Cerberus Action."
In Greek mythology, Cerberus is the multiheaded dog with snakes on his back and a dragon on his tail who guards the gates of hell and refuses entrance to living humans.
The symbolism was to imply protecting the afterworld from human looters.
The symbolism soon gave way to reality last Wednesday morning when 150 federal agents swooped into the small town (population 3,200) of Blanding and handcuffed 16 suspects — two-thirds of the 24 arrested — and hauled them off to Moab to be arraigned in front of a federal magistrate.
Many folks in Blanding have since wondered if dealing with a multiheaded dog with snakes on his back and a dragon on his tail might have been preferable.
"It was overdone. It was overkill. The people here, the majority of them, feel violated by the heavy-handed Gestapo tactics," said Neil Joslin, owner and publisher of the Blue Mountain Panorama, the Blanding area's weekly newspaper.
The townspeople, he said, are lamenting the fact that there was seemingly no effort to differentiate between suspected artifact dealers who might pose an arrest threat and others who did not."
Get the Story:
Lee Benson: Blanding publisher calls raid 'overkill'
(The Salt Lake City Deseret News 6/17)
Relevant Documents:
DOI
Press Release: Federal Agents Bust Ring of Antiquity Thieves Looting American
Indian Sites for Priceless Treasures |
DOJ
Press Release: Arrests Made in Operation Targeting Network Selling Stolen Native
American Artifacts |
Remarks
of Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden at a Press Conference
Related Stories:
Utah town upset over
Indian artifact theft case (6/17)
Agents searched New Mexico art dealer's home
(6/17)
Utah
GOP upset with Indian artifact theft case (6/15)
Tribes support prosecution of artifact theft case
(6/12)
Defendant in DOI artifact theft
case found dead (6/12)
Two dozen
indicted for theft of Indian artifacts (6/11)
Salazar, EchoHawk in Utah for press conference
(6/10)
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